Maarty Leunen and the No. 15 Oregon Ducks (14-1, 2-1 Pacific-10 Conference ) enter tonight’s game against slumping Arizona State (6-9, 0-4) with a little bit of guarded optimism after upsetting then No. 1 UCLA last Saturday.
“When you beat the No. 1 team in the country, you are feeling pretty good,” said Leunen, the Pac-10’s leading rebounder at 10.3 per game. “(But) usually teams come off these big, high, emotional victories and then come against a team maybe a little less caliber and they’re not ready to play or still riding off that last win. We’ve just go to stay focused.”
The Ducks will have to do that on the road against an Arizona State team that has lost five in a row, four to start conference play, and only two of its six wins have come against Div. I teams. Those two teams, Iowa and San Jose State, have a combined record of 10-19 this season.
Still, you won’t see the Ducks overlooking anybody even with a showdown against No. 10 Arizona looming just a few days later.
“The Pac-10 is really tough this year so you can’t take any team lightly,” Leunen said. “So we’re just going in there, playing really confident, knowing that they’re going to come at us really tough because we’re a good team, too.”
Under first-year head coach Herb Sendek, who led North Carolina State to five consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, Arizona State has failed to find its rhythm, ranking last in the conference in scoring offense at 63.2 points per game, and sits at the bottom of the conference standings. The young Sun Devils dropped their first two Pac-10 games at home against Stanford and California then went 0-2 on the road at the Washington schools, including a 75-55 blowout loss to Washington State.
The bright spot for the young Arizona State team, which is expected to start two freshmen and a sophomore tonight, has come from 6-foot-9, 230-pound forward Jeff Pendergraph, a member of the 2006 Pac-10 All-Freshmen team.
The sophomore is averaging a double-double with 14.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game in the last nine games. He leads the conference in offensive rebounds and is fourth overall. He is also second in field goal percentage and averages 12.7 points per game, second on the team behind only guard Christian Polk’s 13.7 points per game.
“We know they got a really good inside presence with Pendergraph. He had a pretty good game on us last year,” Leunen said, referring to Pendergraph’s career-high 21 points in the second meeting of the season with the Ducks. “We know it’s a tough place to play at so we’ve just got to come in prepared.”
The Ducks will be a little more prepared with the expected return of guard Malik Hairston, the leading scorer last season, who missed Oregon’s first five games with a groin injury and missed the Ducks’ last five games after tearing soft tissue in his left heal during practice on Dec. 19.
“Just yesterday in practice, what a difference Malik made having him on the floor because he gives you another scorer, another skill player, another rebounder,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. “If we can continue to keep him on track … that’s really good for us.”
In the five games he’s played in this season, Hairston’s averaged 13.4 points per game and 6.2 rebounds per game.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” Hairston said. “I’ve definitely got to say my wind is a lot better than when I came back from my groin injury.
“I just come in playing my game. Definitely just focusing on being solid on offense and defense, not necessarily trying to do too much, but just doing what I can to make the guys around me better and still be productive.”
The Ducks are seeking consecutive wins in Tempe, Ariz., for the first time since winning three straight from 1995-97 after taking down Arizona State 98-87 there last season.
The Ducks are on the road for six of their next eight games.
“It’s a very important stretch that if we can manage this and come out on top of things, then we’ve got six of eight at home,” Kent said. “And the way this building was on Saturday (against UCLA), if we can continue that type of atmosphere here down the stretch and play exciting basketball, we’ll be tough to beat at home.”
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